New BA meltdown: Long delays after IT systems fail for SEVENTH time in a year
BRITISH Airways was labelled a budget airline yesterday after its check-in system crashed for the seventh time in a year.
Passengers arrived at Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports to find they all had to check in manually.
They complained of two-hour queues in the terminal, missed connections and even being stuck on the runway.
One user called Tom tweeted: ‘ Budget airline service, decent airline prices. Ancient planes. I’ll pass.’
Steve Blake said: ‘Missed my 7.15 flight because BA couldn’t print my boarding pass due to IT failure.’
Sarah Ashdown tweeted: ‘Total disorganisation at Heathrow. Stood in a queue for nearly two hours.’
Destinations including Athens, Dubrovnik, Glasgow, Milan and Malta were affected. BA apologised to passengers but insisted the IT failure lasted an hour and had been resolved by 8.45am.
The FLY check-in system has failed
‘Need to get their act together’
seven times since the company finished installing it at 200 airports last year.
This May BA’s global computer network shut down after a power outage, causing hundreds of flights to be delayed or cancelled. The problem ran on for several days, with flights cancelled from Heathrow and Gatwick over the bank holiday weekend and half term.
BA later said it was caused by an engineer who made a mistake when restarting equipment. Charlie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover and Deal, said: ‘BA is meant to be the national flag carrier – not a budget airline.
‘It should have planned better for the holiday season and made sure their systems are up to the job. To have seven failures in 12 months is extraordinary. They need to get their act together.’
One passenger appealed to BA boss Alex Cruz. Emma Slade said: ‘BA systems down worldwide again. Alex Cruz sort it out. It’s an embarrassment.’
Critics say his a decision to axe 700 IT workers and outsource services to India has contributed to the issues.
This has been denied by the air- line. Mr Cruz has also been criticised for scrapping free food for economy passengers on shorthaul flights.
This was seen by many as the last factor justifying them paying more to fly than they would with budget rivals such as Ryanair.
From next year BA will also reduce legroom on some shorthaul flights to squeeze in more seats.
A spokesman for BA said last night: ‘Our worldwide check-in system has been in place since last summer, and so far more than 50million customers have used it successfully. We are very sorry for the minor delays to some custom- ers this morning, however our staff are working flat out to help customers get away on their holidays.’
Alex Neill, managing director of home products and services at consumer group Which?, said: ‘Passengers who have faced a severe delay to their flight as a result of today’s disruption may be entitled to compensation.
‘Airlines should proactively tell them if they can claim. It’s time for airlines to start automatically compensating eligible passengers. Until they do this, we urge people to check what they are entitled to.’
Last June, shortly after the FLY system was fully installed, it stopped working due to an IT glitch. Three more incidents followed in July and another in September.